Why I Will Not Invest in Blu-ray and Why You Probably Shouldn't Either

Yes, I know. I haven't finished the last series. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, I will include how I ripped my CDs. You probably already know how to do this, but it is a guide so I won't make that assumption.

Moving on.

Beta not invest in Betamax.

If you remember when Blu-ray came out, it was in competition with HD-DVD. The two battled it out for a little while, snagging game consoles. Sony was behind Blu-ray, so PlayStation 3 consoles played Blu-rays while Microsoft invested in HD-DVDs, but the XBOX 360 required an add-on to play them. Medium wars are not new. You may not remember this (I don't; the VCR came out in '71), but VHS tapes were in competition with Betamax tapes. Customers ultimately decided that affordability was more important than quality. Strangely enough, Sony was the backer of Betamax. As you probably know by now, Sony's Blu-ray beat HD-DVDs, which stopped production back in 2008.

Stay classy, Seattle.

Enough with the history lesson. Where am I going with this? I believe that Blu-ray is on the decline and will continue to decline until it is replaced with something else. Blu-ray sales have already peaked; that happened in 2009. To be fair, you could attribute the rapid decline in sales to the state of the economy; but in my opinion, it's inevitable, like the invention of the beer helmet.

This is actually a guide for checking for fleas.

No, seriously. You see, it takes a lot of work to hold that beer can. That's a whole hand that's sacrificed to ensure the continuation of brain-dulling by the urine-colored fizz water. That's a hand that could be used for scratching various body parts or participating in the Macarena.

There are two things that the masses will always be duped into buying: the shiny stuff and anything that lets you be more lazy than you were before. The first one's obvious, and I covered it a little bit in a previous post. The second is based off of something my wife told me: "If you could invent something that would allow people to be more lazy, you'd make a mint." It's true. Just look at some of these finds:

Who needs the chore of sucking on a Cert? Just let a thin sheet dissolve on your tongue.

Ellen DeGeneres: "Was there a big mobility problem with yogurt before?"

Thank you, George Jetson.

For some reason,
I've never heard of this movie.

You could make the argument that these and others make your life more efficient, which awards you more time to do more important things like watching the director's commentary on your Olson twins DVD.

Regardless, the reason Blu-ray is ebbing is because its manufacturers still require you to get out of your bean bag and switch discs when you want to watch a new movie. Those fascists! The next new medium will let you sit on your duff and play a movie, a song, a show, or a game with just a remote.

Total rip-off of Benji 5

Those of you who are Blu-ray enthusiasts will probably argue that Blu-ray has the highest resolution available and that additional features that are available on Blu-ray do not exist anywhere else. You may be right; I haven't investigated those claims, and there's a reason I haven't: I don't care. I'm not going to adopt an entirely new, more expensive medium so that I go into the special features and play the Air Bud 3 memory game. I buy a movie to watch the movie. I don't have time to hear about the little spat the director had with the screenwriter. As far as the resolution is concerned, it's excellent - no arguments there. However, I don't need to see the detail in Chewbacca's fur to enjoy Star Wars.

Besides, if there's anything that Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Avatar taught us, it's that over-the-top special effects and eye candy distract the viewer from a rotten storyline. Remember what I said about shiny stuff?

Furthermore, while the resolution is higher, that also means that it requires more space. So, if I wanted to rip my Blu-rays (yes, it is possible) and store them on my hard drive, they would take up much more space and the ripping process itself would take much longer. Then, of course, you have the Blu-ray player itself, which requires constant updates. This requires it to be connected to a network, which provides another series of issues with which to contend.

Why, Grandma, what very expensive coasters you have!

In Blu-ray's place will be the ever-expanding library of movies on demand through Netflix, Amazon, downloadable content, and/or your own network of media files.

So, when is it coming? That's the best part. It's already here, and it has been here for some time. In the guide that I am providing (and will finish, I promise), I take DVDs that I already own and convert them into media files that can be read by an inexpensive media box that I own. The media box itself is cheaper than any decent Blu-ray player on the market.

How do I know this is going to happen? Because it has already happened with music. When was the last time you bought a CD from a store? Why would you? You can go to iTunes or Amazon and download the good songs from the CDs while leaving the filler songs. You don't need the retail CD for your car, because you can just burn your own CD or use an MP3 player. CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays all have one large problem: They are all physical media. Physical media can be easily damaged or lost. Have you ever scratched a CD so that it won't play past a certain song? 

Eventually, permanent movie media files (much like iTunes does music) will become mainstream. You will pay for a single movie, download it, and watch it any time you wish. Because there will be no need for disc manufacturing and shipping, prices will decrease. It may take some time for this to happen. Movie studios are, no doubt, fighting this as they do with any new frontier in media distribution, but the laziness of the masses (myself included) will win the day.

Where's my beer helmet?



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